TY - JOUR
TI - Social work and “the social”: a biopolitical perspective
AU - Webb, Stephen A.
TI - Social work and “the social”: a biopolitical perspective
AB - 
	Amid the uncertainty of the current political context and an unprecedented institutional crisis in European welfare, this article offers a theoretical analysis of the problems arising from the historical reshaping of social work as a biopolitical organ of the state. It undertakes this analysis from a biopolitical perspective and asks how this framework can help us in defining the specific features of social work intervention in family life? To properly answer, the article proposes a methodological understanding which explicates a series of relations between “biopolitics – the social – social work”. To this end, supported by analyses from Foucault and Donzelot, the article shows how social work as a form of state governmentality intervenes in the lives of families to normalise behaviour and conduct. From a critical vantage point, these findings compel us to re-examine the problem of consent and consensus when working with service users and families in the midst of an increasingly more controlling authoritarian social work.
VL - 2020
IS - Tom 25, Numer 3
PY - 2020
SN - 1507-4285
C1 - 2449-6138
SP - 163
EP - 177
DO - 10.4467/24496138ZPS.20.024.13079
UR - https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/zeszyty-pracy-socjalnej/artykul/social-work-and-the-social-a-biopolitical-perspective
KW - biopolitics
KW - normalisation
KW - family life
KW - pastoral power
KW - social work